DAVID MOYES feared that Everton FC’s recent resurgence could have been “make-up” to cover persisting blemishes, and in a decidedly un-pretty contest no amount of cosmetic aid could hide the ugly truth.

DAVID MOYES feared that Everton FC’s recent resurgence could have been “make-up” to cover persisting blemishes, and in a decidedly un-pretty contest no amount of cosmetic aid could hide the ugly truth.

He was right. Consecutive wins over Wolves and Bolton had propelled the Blues to ninth in the league, and engendered hope that the festive season could see them begin to claw back the top eight.

But even though defeat by Stoke City only nudged Everton down one place in the Premier League table, far more damaging will be the erosion of optimism at Goodison Park after this turgid, uninspired display.

Consider their opponents. This was a Stoke side that had lost all of their previous league outings after a Europa League fixture, and were without one of their key wide-men in Jermaine Pennant.

Never an easy opponent, they at least represented an achievable scalp given the circumstances.

But with grinding inevitability Louis Saha was suddenly missing after picking up a thigh problem on Saturday, and Everton had to rely on a 19-year-old Greek forward who cost £250,000 to lead their line.

The critics will claim Moyes should have matched Tony Pulis’ approach of using two strikers, and on the surface it’s a compelling argument.

But where is the other forward capable of making a difference? Stoke’s bench boasted an £8m striker, Kenwyne Jones, twiddling his thumbs, while Peter Crouch, who cost £10m, led their line.

By comparison Moyes had to sell Yakubu and Jermaine Beckford in order to recoup cash in January, and in reserve had only an on-loan Argentinean who is yet to start a league game.

Even January’s transfer window may bring no solution to Everton’s perennial striking problem. Moyes still has no idea of his budget, and whatever his eventual level of funding it’s unlikely to help him land the 20-goal hit-man he needs above all else.

At least Everton got something right. The pre-match tributes to former skipper Gary Speed were both fitting and immaculately observed.

Both teams walked out in silence as the Welsh national anthem played proudly over the speakers.

And Speed’s father Roger showed tremendous courage to join his son’s former team-mates in the centre circle for a minute of applause.

Consequently the game had a subdued start, with the opening minutes played in near silence as Goodison remained absorbed by the emotion of it all.

Even if it was very much not an omen of things to come, the Toffees did manage to create the first half-chance.

Given plenty of space to charge into, Leighton Baines fired a low cross into the area that Tim Cahill back-heeled over the bar.

It approaches a full calendar year without a goal for the Aussie, and seeing the net bulge would have been a perfect early present ahead of his 32nd birthday tomorrow.

The only other real chance of the first half saw Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, being rewarded for an encouraging turn at the Reebok stadium, skew a volley wide across goal.

The Russian still does good things in isolation. When he dropped his shoulder deftly to dart past Jonathan Woodgate, onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking he was about to really stake his claim.

But Bily, like Everton’s midfield in general, fizzled into a black hole of inspiration.

Then Stoke took the lead, perhaps inevitably from a set-piece. Matthew Ethertington’s corner was only partially cleared by Bily, and Robert Huth stuck out his boot to divert Dean Whitehead’s shot past Tim Howard.

Everton were not defending second balls convincingly and Stoke – admirably full of energy despite a sapping 90 minutes against Dynamo Kiev on Thursday – began to force them onto the back-foot.

The Blues responded with a canny passage of play when they stroked the ball around intelligently but, and here’s the (entirely not) shocking bit, no end product.

As the first half continued, Everton’s lack of ideas in central midfield became mind-numbing.

They were reduced to long diagonal balls from Phil Jagielka, one of which Tim Cahill almost latched onto, although it wasn’t much of an endorsement of the tactic.

Indeed, it was the visitors who were unfortunate not to go into the break with their advantage doubled, when only a heroic Tim Howard save prevented Ryan Shawcross from scoring.

The central defender then rubbed salt into Everton wounds by escaping punishment from Lee Mason, despite brazenly holding Marouane Fellaini in the area from a corner.

Stoke’s batteries showed no signs of fading after the re-start. Peter Crouch should probably have scored with a back-post header but got his angles wrong.

In reply there remained little from the Blue corner. Tim Cahill will feel he might have had a spot-kick when Thomas Sorensen appeared to upend him in the area, but replays suggested the goalkeeper got to the ball first and injured himself in the process.

Vellios had struggled to make an impact, and was replaced by Stracqualursi as Moyes desperately looked for something different in attack.

He almost got that from the returning Jack Rodwell, who replaced Bily, and lashed a venomous shot just wide.

Then Heitinga and Stracqualursi both failed to apply a goalbound touch to Baines’ expert delivery.

It was a rare moment of incision though. Even as the clock ticked down Everton were curiously unambitious at getting bodies into Stoke’s area.

At least in the seven minutes of injury time they committed men forward, although it was too little, too late.